Food Cart Review: Retrolicious

Kimberly and Roy Swope, owners of Retrolicious, believe
the emotional benefits of comfort food outweigh the caloric costs. Roy’s
father worked for an oil company, so he spent an itinerant childhood
moving around South America. After each move, his mother would teach the
new maid a rotation of traditional American mainstays that Roy
remembers fondly as one constant in an otherwise unorthodox upbringing.

So
when the couple decided to trade in Arizona’s heat for Oregon’s gentle
rains, they took inspiration from their past, devoting their sparkling,
flamingo-pink cart at the Green Castle pod to the childhood comfort
foods they most love. “We like to feed people the way we like to be
fed,” Kimberly says.

The resulting,
made-from-scratch menu includes a mac and pimento cheese ($6), a Cuban
called “Damn That Castro” ($7) and a barbecue meatloaf burger ($7). The
brunch special is a buttermilk biscuit and pan-seared ham, drowning in
red-eye gravy and topped with a poached egg ($7). I enjoyed the chicken
and waffles, a juicy Cajun fried chicken breast, marinated
buttermilk-style and served with a yeasty cornmeal waffle and spicy
syrup on the side ($6).

For
dessert, and in keeping with the retro theme, Kimberly, who sports dark
Marilyn curls, also draws recipes for lemon bars and snickerdoodles ($1)
from ’40s and ’50s Junior League cookbooks. With this kind of smart
branding and great food—the kind that would sound even better on one of
Portland’s wet winter days—Retrolicious is a restaurant waiting to
happen.

Order this: The mac ’n’ cheese—there’s nothing more Southern than pimento cheese.